e-books vs physical books

Disappointed

Since when are moderators allowed to hijack threads to have personal battles with another member?

However amusing the above argument may be, it's not what I signed up for.

Inkheart said:

Since when are moderators allowed to hijack threads to have personal battles with another member?

However amusing the above argument may be, it's not what I signed up for.

Click to expand...

I agree with you.

Back to reality. Fritz Leiber is on E-books now, too.

Since it is obvious that I like Sci Fi, I just thought that I would mention that I love Fritz Leiber's writing. Stewart will have a hard time attacking him, as Fritz is dead.


Fritz was the son of a famous Shakespearian actor who was occasionally in movies. If you watch some of the old films from the Thirties and Forties, you will occasionally see a credit for Fritz Leiber. That was the actor father. Junior also acted, but gave that up to write full time. He had a very imaginative mind.

His books are also available as E-books. I was going to say that originally, but forgot to put it in here until after I hit the save button, so I am editing this in.

Here's another attempt to move books into the digital age: The Amazon Kindle.

Nifty little device selling for $399 American - or, if you will, roughly 40 paperbacks. Supposedly, it can hold 200 books at once (let's face it, haven't we all been in that situation where we go on a trip with just 176 books in the trunk and run out of reading material), is always connected to the Internet (at least in the US, I guess) so you can buy more books at the click of a button, and it's explicitly designed to look like "an austere vessel of culture." Oh my.

Amazon believe they have created "the iPod of reading." Does anyone agree?

Putting aside the emotional "NO! Books are made of paper!" response, I guess my biggest reservations come from this: people today are already lugging around mobile phones (often more than one), blackberries, iPods, laptops etc. Will they really be prepared to add yet another gizmo to their pockets? Wouldn't it be smarter to try and adapt an existing thingamajig?

(Also, I'm taking bets on how long - in minutes - it's going to take before some smart hacker cracks that .azw format and every single e-book becomes freely available on every torrent site.)

While I do like the idea of the e-book, I have to say I prefer the physical book.

Just a few reasons why I prefer a book over an e-book:

-Less eye fatigue with a book
-No DRM to worry about
-No worry about batteries dying at an inopportune time
-I don't have to close my book prior to the plane taking off/landing
-I can quickly move around in the book
-If my book "breaks" I am not out much money
-There's nothing romantic about sitting at a campsite scrolling through an e-book reader
-A library of books at home looks impressive
-e-book cover art leaves a lot to be desired
-no screen glare from a book
-I prefer holding the book in my hands

I love my computer and I love the internet and, at the advanced age of almost 45, I actually wonder how on earth we lived without these things in the Olden Days.

But reading on computer? No way.

As I have mentioned elsewhere: can you take a laptop to the loo with you? Can you comfortable take a laptop to bed with you? Or on a crowded bus on the way to work in the morning?

There is also the point that it is not as comfortable to read long pieces on screen as on a page (I speak as a journalist who has worked online – there are serious limits to what people can and will read online).

A physical book, if I can get a hold of it through a library, but I like ebooks also.

Aparently, my husband has ordered The Kindle for me as a gift. I'll have to let you know how I like it....if I even do.
I've watched the video over and over on the explanation of it. It seems interesting. I just hope that the return policy isn't strict.

I was worried about the eye strain, but Amazon stresses the use of E-paper.

If you are interested, watch the second video down...
The Amazon Kindle

I've only ever read one E-book [The Supernaturalist].
E-books hurt my eyes because of the screen, but I don't dislike them.
I still prefer physical books though.

I prefer physical books, though I do have several hundred e-books waiting to be read. I love that I can store so many books on my computer, but reading an e-book just isn't as enjoyable as a paper book.